Paint the town at the Valspar Championship, March 21-24, 2024
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For all its many advantages in weather, recreation, golf and yes, taxes, my own experience is it can sometimes be hard to find great wine in Florida.
Not so in Tampa, boasting three world-class, easily reachable wine destinations if you happen to be teeing it up at Innisbrook or attending the Valspar Championship. We’ve been to all of these places and give them our highest ratings. From north to south they are:
B-21 Fine Wine & Spirits: outstanding retail selection, good prices, would be a go-to store anywhere
Bern’s Steakhouse: haven’t been in years but…good steaks, ridiculous wine list, I dunno, maybe 200 pages? Fair prices, but have crept up over the years (what hasn’t?). Often near retail if you could even find the same bottles. This place is pilgrimage-worthy if you love wine. Assuming it’s still the tradition, the only place I’ve ever been where you re-locate to a different room and table for post-prandial libations.
Mazzaro’s Italian Market: Like someone dropped an unpretentious version of Eataly in a residential St. Pete’s neighborhood. Great Italian wine selection though not visible on their website.
It’s no easy task competing with these category killers, but here are some contenders if you can’t make it to Bern’s, which everyone who loves wine needs to do at least once in a lifetime.
Does the presence of a handful of exciting wines on a 20-page wine list make a restaurant an automatic destination? Not necessarily unless the prices are great. That’s our quandary if you visit any of the following:
Cipresso and Council Oak Steak at the Hard Rock/Seminole Resort share a list. Lots of wine but too many undistinguished bottles. Yes, there is Leflaive “Clavoillon,” but it’s $900. Ducru-Beaucaillou ‘18 is $600. There’s a 6-vintage vertical of Penfold’s Grange, but the buy-in starts at $1500. In fairness, the California cab, meritage, and pinot sections are stuffed and you’ll be fine there even if you may want to keep your phone handy to see how much you may be overpaying if you aren’t careful. I hope the slots are generous.
Haven has a big, diverse list with some pockets of strength. Just check your credit limit if you want to drink anything with a big reputation. Then you’ll see something like Enderle and Moll “Liaison” for $75 and realize there’s a sommelier trapped in here trying to get out, even if he/she isn’t quite sure whether Lebanon is in Europe.
Speaking of sommeliers, the charmingly named wine bar Sommelier Hideaway has a fun, well-curated list that manages a fair amount of varietal diversity in a small package. A bit geeky as the name suggests and not the place to go with a raging cab Jones, but you can drink for free if you can guess wines blind. That’s enough to get our competitive juices flowing.
